Johnathon At 3 Months

    The vivid and happy patterns of Pebble's 'Family Ties' paper collection was enough inspiration for me to finally get these adorable photos of my grandson onto scrapbook pages. This little guy lives FIVE hours away which makes me sad. But I am grateful for the ease and convience of the internet and blogs . . . cause that means I get to see him everyday!

    I used the chipboard flowers and papers from the Pebble's 'Family Ties' collection. The ribbons are from American Crafts. Alphabet stickers are American Crafts thickers 'Hugs' in leaf, Amy Tangerine thickers 'Lovely' in a teal textured foam rubber, and October Afternoon 'Mini Market' Stickers in green & cream. Edges are inked in Color Box Chalk chestnut roan. Cute guy courtesy of Jim and Becky.

Saint Patrick's Day Banner

    I was inspired by a cute banner Melissa, a gal from Oh My Craft's made out of seven card stock shamrocks and green wire. She had so cleverly adorned the end pieces with gold rosettes from the Bravissimo collection (which they currently have on sale). Melissa let me trace a shamrock and I purchased 2 of the gold rosettes. My penny pinching daughter challenged me to utilize only supplies I already had at home. The green and gold glitter card stock was left over from Christmas projects and I dug through old patterned paper and found enough green to match the green polka dot paper I had leftover from a more recent project I had done using Pebbles new 'Family Ties' collection. Even the shamrock stickers and embellishments were things I already had. SEE THERE IS A REASON TO PURCHASE THE FUN STUFF WHEN YOU SEE IT! Total cost of this project: 60 cents.

Where In The World . . .

 . . . will Amanda be called?

    Amanda has submitted her papers to serve as a missionary for The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints. We have heard that her status is 'assigned'. Which means the mailman should be delivering a large envelope to her on Wednesday!

    Am I giddy? Just a bit. :)

    When Amanda officially opens this large envelope she hopes to celebrate the exciting moment with her friends and family. In other words it becomes a party! And this party requires some festive decor. Thus- the fun banner Amanda and I created and at this moment I am bragging about to the world (or whomever will look).

    Look! Look at our banner! We found various country flags at a local map place and cut triangle pennants from a travel atlas we purchased cheaply at Wal-mart. Stapled them alternately onto a long piece of jute. How simple and easy is that? I made the letters by stamping acrylic paint onto a piece of card stock with a foam alphabet stamp (Making Memories), allowing time to dry before I hand cut-out the letters. Then glued them onto the map pennants.

    I want to make invitations out of pages of the atlas folded like a map, but Amanda is nixing that idea. Silly mom! (I'm making a few anyway.)

Panoramic Sugar Eggs

    At my home Easter begins weeks before the Easter bunny starts picking out colors for his eggs. In my mind the joy of Easter consists of granulated sugar and meringue powder. My husband doesn't appreciate the endless crunch of sugar on his shoes, or the way the kitchen and dining room seem to disappear under the assortment of icing bunnies and chicks, but he has learned to tolerate it with a smile. I KNOW that he loves me just in the sweet way he puts up with how my obsession transforms our normal simple home life for 4-6 weeks every spring.

    I remember with fondness the time my sister, Nani invited my girls and me to her home to decorate sugar eggs for the first time. I think my mom may have made a sugar egg once or twice while I was young, but the craft had not become a common activity. I certainly had no clue to the awesomeness of this art and how it would effect my spring every year after that. In 2012 over sixty eggs were molded, carved and decorated in my home. I do NOT do this alone. I mostly do the molding and carving by myself, but the decorating is accomplished by people aged five to one hundred. With adult supervision even the youngest kids are successful at creating masterpieces with royal frosting and frosting decorations. It is usually the adults who need a bit of prodding before they realize the Picasso with in them.

    Decorating sugar eggs has become a fun way for me to meet my neighbors, new friends and to share a unique activity with people of all ages in my life. The beauty and creativeness is boundless. I have learned that it is important that I take a picture of the artist and egg before they leave my house. I don't think we ever took a photo of Brandon's bunny spacecraft. I kick myself over that one every year. The hours spent preparing shells to decorate are spent in anticipation of what surprises and masterpieces will magically be created with sugar and water. Some of the best masterpieces are the enduring friendships renewed and made. I certainly love the magic of sugar eggs!

    P.S. The next few weeks will be predomitely spent with sugar instead of paper.

Amanda's Surprise

I wanted to do something fun for Amanda for Valentines. Bruce and I decided to give her money since she is working on completely paying off her student loan by May 1st. But how do you make cash special and memorable? With lots of sentiment and pretty stuff, that's how.

It was easy for me to gather some cute things left over from a recent project. In a very short time I had streamers hanging from her bedroom door frame. I stapled money, doilies, cute sayings, little notes, paper hearts and cute stuff to the ribbons. Amanda will love it! I can hardly wait for her to come home and see her special valentine surprise!

True Love Valentine Banner

I was so expired by Echo Parks Love Story collection that I just had to create a Valentine banner with the pretty, pretty paper. I worked on it little bits at a time. I camped out on the floor of the living room playing with paper while my hubby watched Grey's Anatomy. That show drives me crazy- real people do not act that way! Really? They are so unprofessional in the workplace. Just the fact that they operate with jewelry on and talk about their personal problems during procedures which should receive their full attention is mind boggling. I watch with my hunny only to be with him and sit on his feet while I cut, glue and embellish.

I am happy to say that my crafting mess is off the living room floor. It just moved to a long table in the front room where seven of my grand kids made valentine treat boxes yesterday. I just might leave the table up so Amanda and I can 'smash' this weekend, and then I have neighbor girls coming over for an activity on Monday. (The mess never seems to disappear completely). Yes! I love playing with paper.

I promise- I loaded this picture rightside up.
I even attempted it twice. Who knows?